Stuck on Replay

Lately, I feel like my road to a healthy lifestyle has been stuck on replay.  I set goals, make a plan, and follow through...for a week or two.  Then, I binge, and stop working out, and watch way too much tv, and become lethargic.  I eventually get disgusted with myself, snap out of it, and start again. 

In case you couldn't tell by my absences, I fell off the wagon, again.  I didn't win my Diet Bet.  Instead, I gained most back of the 3.5lb I did lose.  I finished level 1 of JM 30 Day Shred, but then I didn't continue on to level 2.  Rather, I quit working out for over a week.  

I am tired of starting over.  I am tired of hitting replay.  

Yesterday, I hashed out the "millionth" work out plan.  My fingers are crossed this time.  

Here's to just pushing play, not replay.  

Feeling Excited & Goals

I'm going to start this post by asking something really random:

Do you ever just get super excited about life?

I have the day off of work today, and I was just sitting in my kitchen, making lots of goodies (breakfast pot pies, homemade pesto, french bread), and I just got really excited.

Photographic proof of my "making lots of goodies"

Sundried Tomato Pesto, which will be served with chicken and linguine tonight

 Breakfast Pot Pies with egg, veggies, bacon, and cheese

 It was a giddy/euphoric feeling.  I was thinking about training for races, exercising, good food, my best friend, Nick...lots of things were going through my mind when my heart started to race, my face broke out into a great big smile, and I thought about how lucky I am to live the life I live.  It's not perfect, nor will it ever be, but I am still pretty damn lucky.  I have a beautiful home, great friends, a loving man, an awesome family, two adorable furbabies, and I am healthy.  I know how to cook (and I'm damn good at it), my body is able to accomplish amazing things, and I have a great support system.

Where am I going with this?  I really have no idea.  Maybe it's the beer I had with lunch talking, but I just feel really excited about the future, and about my life.  I am lucky to have so many great things in my life, and may I never take any of them for granted.

Anywho....enough of my random spiel, let's talk about goals!

My goal for last week, we to do 5 2-a-day workouts.  Um,  I did that once.  Only once.  I missed this goal by a long shot.  I did work out at least 30 minutes each day everyday except for Friday.  That's got to count for something, right?

This week, my goal is to burn at least 3,000 calories.

I've been on a mission to burn 3,500 calories in a week, but have yet to conquer that goal.  I'm in the last 2 weeks of my Diet Bet, so I need some heavy calorie burns this week.  I set the goal a tad under 3,500 to make it a little easier to reach.

I hope everyone has a GREAT week!

5 on Friday: Feeling Healthy Edition

I am dedicating this 5 of Friday post to the healthy changes I am feeling in my body.  Now that I am working out consistently, and have been eating quite well, I am starting to feel wonderful!  I was feeling bloated, tired, and sluggish, but I am slowly doing a 180 to an improved, and healthy me!!  Here are the top five health changes I have noticed so far in 2014.

{ONE}
I no longer feel like/think I need coffee in the morning.  The first thought that used to pop into my head when I opened my eyes in the morning was, "I need coffee!"  I would have my 2-3 cups in the morning.  Then in the afternoon, I would sometimes have 1-2 cups more!  My mind/body no longer feels dependent on coffee to get me through the day.  Instead, I am getting energy through exercise and eating the right foods.  I do still enjoy coffee in the morning, but I'm down to one cup.

{TWO}
I was having the most difficult time getting out of bed.  Seriously, I was hitting snooze for an hour or more most mornings... I could have been using the precious time to work out, but instead I wanted 5 more minutes, just 5 more minutes.  Those 5 minutes turned to 10 to 30 to an hour!  I am still guilty of hitting snooze, but I now only do it once or twice.

{THREE}
Tying in with both one and two, more energy!  I feel energize when I wake up, not tired.  When 2:30 hits, and everyone else at work is tired and sluggish, I'm peppy and feeling great.  I don't feel the need to guzzle coffee or take a nap.  I have enough natural energy to power me through the entire day.

{FOUR}
I don't feel as bloated and gross.  'Nuff said.

{FIVE}
Less cravings.  I used to crave salty stuff like Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips, or chocolate.  It was a struggle battling these cravings, and they unfortunately won most of the time.  I still crave chocolate after dinner, but I am now more aware of what I eat.  Instead of downing an entire candy bar, I'll have one square of a Lindt dark chocolate bar.  The salt craving is nearly nonexistent.

If I already feel this great after only 17 days, I am beyond excited about my healthy future!!

Happy weekend, everyone!

WIW

Remember last week how I said I was going to start taking pictures of the scale for my weigh-ins?  Well, I completely forgot until I sat down at work to type this.  Oops.  Next week for sure!

Last week I weighed in at 175 on the dot.  This week 174.3.  

Not as big of a loss as I was hoping, but at least it was a loss!  

Aunt Flow is currently visiting, so she may have to do with my less than a pound loss.  If not, well, I just need to work a little harder.

There are 16 days left in my Diet Bet, and I still have 4.2 to lose.  Totally doable!!  I am confident the scale will show a bigger loss next week!

30 Day Shred

Nick and I had such a great time on our Madison adventure this weekend!  Unfortunately, we never made it to the Chazen art museum.  Instead, we added another brewery to our list :)  In total, I ended up sampling 18 different beers in one day. 

18.  Different.  Beers.

That right there, is heaven to me.  

I had plans to take a million photos of our excursion, but this ended up being the only one I took...fail.

All these fun shenanigans kind of threw off my rhythm though.  I weighed myself this morning just for a check-in...not pretty.  Hopefully by my weigh-in on Wednesday, I'll be back to normal!

Time to talk about goals.

Last week, I gave myself one goal.  That goal was to get at least 30 minutes of activity in each day.  I was not 100% on this, but I did do really well!  Friday after work, I had lady cramps, and was just drained from the work week, so I didn't work out at all.  Otherwise, I did either dancing, the at home workout I shared the other day, yoga, or walked.  

This week, I am continuing with that goal, but I am bumping it up a notch.  I still need to get at least 30 minutes of activity in each day, but now, I will be doing 2-a-days at least 5 days this week.  On these 2-a-days, I should get in at least 45 minutes of activity, but I am shooting for more like an hour.  

I really, really, really want to win my Diet Bet this time so I feel like I need to be a little extreme.  To help me get my booty in shape, I have enlisted the help of one, Miss Jillian Michaels.  I started her 30-Day Shred this morning.  I also took some not so great (chunky/not quality) before pictorials.  If you're not in the mood to see a not-so-fit half naked chick, you'll probably want to stop reading now...  

I took the pictures though so that I have a comparison after the 30 day are up.  I'm really hoping to see some big changes!

  Without further ado, my almost naked body!!!!!

Oh. My. God.  It is sooooo hard taking a full body shelfie!!!  Shit. I'm not sure why I don't have Nick just help me.  For some reason, I'm self-conscious about it.  He sees my naked body on basically a daily basis, TMI...sorry I'm not sorry...but for some reason, I don't want him to know about the pictures.  Is that weird?  Does anyone understand where I'm coming from?